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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30053019">Missed Chances</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookberry005/pseuds/bookberry005'>bookberry005</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Failed Apologies [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SK8 the Infinity (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, I cried while writing this, M/M, Major Character Injury, Please Don't Hate Me, Sad Ending, im sorry, reki messed up, someone get me a new coping mechanism that isnt writing sk8 angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:08:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,506</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30053019</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookberry005/pseuds/bookberry005</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Reki refuses to fix his board, Langa shows up to the final match of the tournament with more determination and recklessness than before. He tries even riskier moves and more reckless skating, and eventually ends up seriously hurt.<br/>Reki couldn't watch the race without his S pin, but he ends up at the hospital during the aftermath.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Failed Apologies [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210301</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>79</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Missed Chances</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hey i bring you more angst! i cried while writing this and need to go to sleep but who cares.</p><p>ALSO i tried to keep the descriptions of blood and violence to a minimum, but please take caution. It's not bad, but I don't want to trigger anyone.<br/>and if you skipped the tags theres major character death. if you don't want it leave.</p><p>this is barely edited because i need to go to sleep so i'm sorry if it's shitty.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“LANGA!”</p><p>Several people screamed as they watched as Langa miscalculated his jump, running into Adam’s Love Hug and screwing up his landing at the same time. He’d taped his feet to his borrowed board before the race, so he couldn’t jump off as the board, with Langa on it, went crashing off the cliff and onto the rocks below.</p><p>Miya, Joe, and Shadow were off running immediately, Shadow for once not complaining about everyone jumping into his car and Miya screaming at him to go faster.</p><p>Miya scrubbed at his eyes, desperately trying to stop the flow of tears. He couldn’t stop himself from blaming Reki for this whole mess. If Reki had just been here, or fixed Langa’s board, or actually taken the time to talk to Langa and understand what was happening, Langa wouldn’t have come back to S the day of the final with that cold determination. He wouldn’t have demanded a board from someone and duct taped his feet.</p><p>
  <em>“I can’t balance without the tape or toe clips. I’ll be fine. I’ve done it before and survived with no injuries”</em>
</p><p>He’d said it with a smile on his face and such determination that everyone believed him.</p><p>A crowd had gathered around Langa even in the two minutes it took the trio to get there.</p><p>“Everyone out of the way!,” Shadow yelled. Everyone parted, quickly scattering off from the glares sent their way by Joe, Shadow, and Miya.</p><p>The only person who didn’t leave was Adam, standing there with his stupid face and hair and board and outfit. Miya wanted nothing more than to whack Adam across the face like Adam had done to Cherry. Except hard enough to kill him.</p><p>Miya made a move forwards, but Shadow held a hand out to stop him.</p><p>“Look at Joe,” Shadow whispered.</p><p>Miya looked and <em>holy fuck Joe looked terrifying.</em> The anger on his face was unmistakable. Miya placed a hand on Joe’s arm, and when Joe looked down, Miya shook his head.</p><p>“It’s not worth beating him up,” Shadow said, his voice thick as he held back tears and anger of his own. “First priority is making sure Langa is safe. Chinen, call and text Reki until you get a hold of him. Joe, you deal with Adam. I’ll drive Langa to the hospital”</p><p>Miya nodded and pulled out his phone. He tried texting first.</p><p>
  <em>Reki.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Reki.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Kyan Reki.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Kyan fucking Reki get on your godddamn phone and check your messages.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Langa raced against Adam and borrowed a skateboard. He did the duct tape thing again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He failed a jump at top speed, got caught in Adam’s Love Hug, and went hurtling off a cliff.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please Reki he looks horrible.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Shadow’s taking him to the hospital now.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please come.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Loser I know you have your phone</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You’re a real loser bitch you know that right? Why’d you let him do this?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Istg if you dont check your fucking phone i am showing up at your house, Kyan Reki.</em>
</p><p>Miya looked up from his phone and saw Joe yelling at Adam for the things he’d done over the years. He also saw Shadow carrying Langa to the car.</p><p>Miya’s eyes widened, the tears that had threatened to fall actually spilling out. There was blood, so much blood. One of Langa’s arms dangled awkwardly, and both his legs looked broken, if not shattered. His clothes were ripped and bloodstained, and it was amazing Langa hadn’t broken his neck or punctured a lung and died on impact. The shattered remnants of a skateboard lay where Langa had fallen, blood coating them and the ground.</p><p>“Shadow-”</p><p>Shadow cut him off. “Miya. Listen to me. I want you to get on the bike that Langa rode here and go to his house to tell his mom. Tell her about S for all I care. I think she deserves to know what goes on here because of what happened to her son”</p><p>Miya nodded and immediately went sprinting back up to the entrance, calling Reki’s number and leaving voicemails as he did. In the twelve times Miya called, Reki didn’t pick up once.</p><p>Miya could barely reach the footholds on the bike, but he got on anyway, speeding off at speeds well beyond the speed limit down the road.</p><p>~~</p><p>“Did you guys hear about Langa?”</p><p>“I did. I don’t know what to say”</p><p>“I can’t believe it happened”</p><p>Reki stopped in his tracks. “What?,” he whispered, turning to his classmates.</p><p>They looked at him. “You...you didn’t hear?,” one of them asked.</p><p>Reki shook his head. “What-what happened to Langa?,” he said, fear edging into his voice. Had Langa gone up against Adam and gotten hurt? Was he dead? Had something else happened?</p><p>“We thought you’d know,” a girl said. “Given you’re his boyfriend”</p><p>“I-I’m not his boyfriend,” Reki managed. His mind moved faster than he could comprehend. His breathing picked up. He could barely breathe, tears starting to blur his vision. “What. Happened. To. Langa?”</p><p>Reki’s classmates looked at each other.</p><p>“They’re saying he’s in the hospital after a freak car accident”</p><p>Reki’s world stopped. He whipped his phone out of his pocket.</p><p>
  <em>Miya Chinen: 75 Messages</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Miya Chinen: 12 voicemails</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Miya Chinen: 4 missed calls</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Joe: 2 voicemails</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Shadow: 3 voicemails</em>
</p><p>Reki sprinted out of the school building, his shaking hands scrolling through the messages and listening to the voicemails as he went.</p><p>Langa went and raced Adam anyway, even without his own board. He’d come to the track somewhat out of sorts and deflected any questions about Reki, saying the two of them were done for good. Someone lent him a board and duct tape, everyone except Miya, Shadow, Joe, and Cherry (who was there via facetime from Joe’s phone) thrilled at the thought of Snow doing his freak skating with the duct tape again.</p><p>Reki stopped by his house to grab a skateboard so he could move faster, and skated as fast as he could to the hospital, jumping off the board and grabbing it as fast as possible.</p><p>He ran into the waiting room, desperately looking around for one of his friends. He saw Miya in the corner and ran over.</p><p>“Miya. Miya is Langa-”</p><p>Miya slapped him across the face. “You don’t have a right to ask about Langa,” he hissed.</p><p>Reki blinked and then looked at the floor. “You’re right. I don’t”. He blinked hard, trying to stop too many tears from falling. His hair was a mess and he was sweating from the speed skateboard ride to the hospital, and he knew his eyes were red from crying earlier. </p><p>Miya looked at him carefully. “You’re still a fucking jerk, slime. But you can go see him when they let visitors in. Shadow told me to wait for you here, and I only agreed under the condition I got to slap you”. He huffed and crossed his arms, giving Reki a once over. “And I did slap you. So as long as you don’t abandon Langa again, we’re good. Got it, slime?”</p><p>Reki couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Yeah, we’re good Miya”</p><p>Miya looked at him strangely and shrugged, pointing to the pile of stuff in the corner.</p><p>“The rest of us just dumped our crap there so feel free to leave your board and backpack”</p><p>Reki did and followed Miya through the white walls of the hospital. The whole place felt impersonal and empty, and it gave him flashbacks to when he’d ended up here after skating against Adam.</p><p>God, he hoped Langa was okay. Langa had a tendency to be even more reckless than Reki while skating, especially when he got excited or was extremely determined. And based on how upset both of them were after their fight a couple days ago, Langa had the motivation and anger to pull some pretty risky tricks or copy some of Adam’s more advanced, riskier moves. With the things Langa tended to pull, Reki might as well have arrived to watch Langa die.</p><p>Reki mentally smacked himself. He wasn’t going to think about that. Langa was going to be in that room, probably with lots of broken bones, but definitely not dying.</p><p>Miya stopped and Reki almost ran into him. He stared at the floor, not willing to meet the eyes of all these people he’d left for what? His stupid insecurities? The solution was so simple: skate because he loved it, and make boards because he was good at it and loved it. Langa said he didn’t give a damn if Reki was the best skater in the world. All he’d wanted was to skate with Reki.</p><p>Reki could list so many things he’d give for another chance to skate with Langa.</p><p>He mentally smacked himself again. He had to stop thinking like Langa was dying.</p><p>Someone placed a hand on Reki’s shoulder. He looked up, coming face to face with a woman with light brown hair and brown eyes. Her eyes were rimmed red from crying and tears still stained her face.</p><p>“Are you Reki?,” she asked softly.</p><p>Reki nodded.</p><p>“I’m Langa’s mom. He talks about you alot”</p><p>For some reason, that pushed Reki over the edge. He pushed away from the lady, Langa’s mom, and collapsed against the wall, clutching his stomach as he sobbed. Hot tears ran down his face. He could barely breathe, heaving in deep breaths when he got a chance, often coughing as a result. He wanted to throw up. Or punch a wall. Or do <em>something.</em> He wanted to run into that room and apologize to Langa for every stupid thing he’d ever said or done.</p><p>Reki pulled at his hair and he slid down the wall, sitting with his knees curled up to his chest. He’d managed to stop choking on his own air and calmed down to something slightly worse than just tears but not as bad as the full on sobbing from before.</p><p>He looked up and saw the concerned faces of Shadow, Miya, Joe, Cherry (who’d shown up in a wheelchair. Another thing to be upset about: Reki was so caught up in his own bullshit he didn’t know how badly hurt Cherry had gotten), and Langa’s mother. “Sorry...I just-”</p><p>“Don’t be sorry, kid,” Joe said, crouching down. “It’s a scary moment”. He leaned closer and whispered, “Don’t share this around, but I was nearly as bad when Kaoru got hurt a couple days ago”</p><p>“We can all hear you, you muscle brained gorilla,” Cherry snapped. There was a small, emphasis on <em>small</em>, amount of affection behind it.</p><p>Reki smiled a little, wiping the tears off his face even though he knew he was just going to cry more. “Really, Joe?”</p><p>Shadow laughed a little. “Who knew the all powerful, super strong skater Joe would cry over his boyfriend being sent to the hospital?”</p><p>“I was whacked in the face full force with a skateboard by a maniac pedophile. How else is someone supposed to react other than panic?,” Cherry snapped. Reki noticed there was no comment on the boyfriend thing. Which was a dumb thing to notice.</p><p>Everyone laughed a little, with the exception of Reki, who was still crying and had too many bad encounters with Adam to laugh, and Mrs Hasegawa, who just shook her head slightly.</p><p>“I cannot believe who my son’s friends are. Or the fact that he’s involved in an illegal skateboarding race that’s apparently run by a maniac pedophile,” she said.</p><p>All the skaters looked at her and immediately started fumbling for some sort of explanation. Reki looked at this whole scenario for a second before laughing. A real, true laugh. One he hadn’t done in days. Because despite all that happened, or maybe because of it, his friends still managed to do something stupid and make him laugh. Some of the best skaters at S, and they couldn’t even explain to someone about how her son had gotten involved.</p><p>Everyone stared at Reki and eventually started laughing as well. That was until a doctor came out of Langa’s room.</p><p>Reki immediately stood up. Everyone stood there attentively, waiting for news of Langa’s condition.</p><p>The doctor looked at all of them and Reki’s heart dropped to the floor when he saw the look of devastation on the doctor’s face.</p><p>“I’m sorry to interrupt your laughter. But we’re not sure if the boy will pull through”</p><p>The doctor went on to elaborate on Langa’s condition, but Reki heard none of it. As far as he was concerned, the world stopped the second he heard those words.</p><p>
  <em>We’re not sure if the boy will pull through.</em>
</p><p>Once again, his vision blurred, he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Those words repeated in his head over and over again.</p><p>If only Reki had fixed the stupid skateboard. If only Reki had seen past his insecurities sooner and sorted himself out instead of feeling sorry for himself.</p><p>“Is one of you Reki?”</p><p>Reki’s head shot up and he raised his hand. “That’s me,” he said weakly.</p><p>“Langa wants to see you”</p><p>Reki blinked. Langa wanted to see him? Why? Didn’t Langa want to see his mom first?</p><p>“I saw him earlier. He was conscious when they brought him in. Go talk to him,” Mrs Hasegawa whispered. She had a sad smile on her face.</p><p>It hit Reki. Langa’s dad was dead, and now Langa was in critical condition as well. He couldn’t imagine what this was like for Mrs Hasegawa.</p><p>“No, please. You go see him first. I-I doubt me seeing him is a good idea,” Reki said. “Given the last time we were together I snapped his skateboard and threw it into the street and told him that...that I, that I wouldn’t...wouldn’t watch him go-go hurtling down the track and-and die”. He could barely choke out the last words. How could he have said and done something like that?</p><p>“Seeing him right now will make it harder than it needs to be.” Mrs Hasegawa took a deep breath. “Besides, if-if he doesn’t make it, do you really want your last conversation to be a yelling match?”</p><p>Reki didn’t protest anymore. He could see how hard this was for Langa’s mother. So he walked through the door the doctor held open.</p><p>The room had the same chemical smell as the rest of the hospital, however the normal bright lights were dimmed down a little. The beep of machines filled the room. There were too many machines.</p><p>Reki looked over at the bed, his heart shattering again seeing the bandaged wrapped figure with blue hair lying there.</p><p>“Hey,” Reki whispered.</p><p>“Hey,” Langa whispered back.</p><p>Reki grabbed a chair and immediately sat down next to the bed, looking at Langa’s face. A bandage wrapped around his forehead and another was stuck on his cheek.</p><p>“Langa I’m so, so sorry. I was just so caught up in my own bullshit that I couldn’t see the obvious solution that was right in front of me and now you might die and it’s all my fault because I-”</p><p>“Reki-”</p><p>“-was mad at you for no fucking reason and didn’t fix your board or come to the races-”</p><p>“<em>Reki-</em>”</p><p>“-and all I can say is I’m so fucking sorry Langa and-”</p><p>“REKI!,” Langa shouted, followed by a cough and several winces in pain. “Shit coughing with my ribs and lungs like this hurts”</p><p>Reki stopped talking. “Is that why they say you might not pull through?”</p><p>Langa nodded. “Almost all my ribs are broken, and I had a lot of internal bleeding. They did what they could but-”</p><p>“One or both of your lungs are punctured, aren’t they?”</p><p>Langa nodded. “Reki, I need you to listen to me”</p><p>Reki placed his hand over Langa’s bandaged one. “What is it?”</p><p>“When I die, don’t blame yourself”</p><p>That hit Reki like a punch. “Don’t-don’t talk like that. Don’t say ‘when’ like it’s inevitable”</p><p>“But it <em>is </em>inevitable, Reki. As fast as Shadow drove me here, I didn’t get stabilized fast enough. They can’t entirely fix me. Not enough to live”</p><p>A new set of tears ran down Reki’s face. “I don’t want to think about that”</p><p>Langa closed his eyes for a moment. “I don’t want to either. I can’t stop thinking about what this is going to do to my mom. And you”</p><p>“I’ll be fine, Langa”</p><p>Langa looked Reki in the eyes. “I mean what I said, Reki. Don’t go blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault. Well, maybe it was a little. It was both of our faults. And Adam’s”</p><p>“Let’s blame this whole thing on Adam”</p><p>“Yeah. Fuck Adam. Who needs Adam?”</p><p>Reki laughed. “Not us”</p><p>Langa smiled. “Definitely”</p><p>For a few moments, the room was only filled with the beep of machines.</p><p>“Reki...promise me you’ll keep skating and making boards,” Langa whispered. He managed to curl his pinkie around Reki’s, and this one time, Reki indulged him in the pinkie promise thing.</p><p>“I promise,” Reki said through his tears. “I’ll even open my own shop when I graduate. Or take over Dope Sketch”</p><p>“That’s a good plan”. Langa looked up at the ceiling. “You said you can skate anywhere right?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“I wonder if you can skate in heaven”</p><p>Reki clutched Langa’s hand a little tighter and moved slightly closer. “If you can’t that’s stupid. Just skate away from God like we skate away from the teachers and the police”</p><p>Langa laughed, once again wincing and coughing at the action. Reki had been trying to avoid the way Langa’s chest shuddered or his breath whistled, but with the coughs, he couldn’t.</p><p>“Stop making me laugh. It hurts”</p><p>“Sorry”</p><p>“But seriously,” Langa managed. “That...that sounds like...a Reki plan...just skate away from God...as if he can’t throw me in Hell”</p><p>Reki didn’t say anything, giving Langa time to recover and say anything else he wanted to say. He blocked out the machines and Langa’s whistley breathing and the chemical smell of the hotel.</p><p>“Reki I...I...fuck I can’t….words...hard”</p><p>Reki smiled softly. “Don’t worry about it. Take your time”</p><p>“I...I think...I love you”</p><p>Reki sucked in a breath, not believing what he was hearing. He didn’t know if it was the pain talking, or the fact that Langa was so close to death, or that emotions were just flying everywhere at the moment.</p><p>He leaned closer. “I love you, too”.</p><p>He knew Langa didn’t hear him from the fact he couldn’t hear the whistle like sounds from Langa’s breathing anymore.</p><p>Reki’s throat hurt and from that and the fact people rushed in the room, he could guess he’d let out some sort of scream-cry-sob thing. </p><p>“He’s...he’s gone,” Reki managed to choke out.</p><p>The group got tangled in one huge group hug, and wouldn’t leave until forcibly removed by the hospital staff. Reki didn’t remember most of it, but he was told by Miya afterwards that he’d almost gone straight to S and murdered Adam. Reki was really wishing Shadow and Cherry hadn’t stopped him.</p><p>He let Shadow drive him home in a daze, walking out of the car and to his house in a blur. It was only eleven in the morning. Why was the world falling apart?</p><p>His mom asked what was wrong and all he’d managed to say was “Langa’s gone” before locking himself in his room.</p><p>He barely ate or drank water. He hadn’t charged his phone or gone to school in weeks. And at the funeral, he’d managed about thirty seconds of a speech before breaking down crying.</p><p>Somehow, Reki became closer with Langa’s mom, and she was almost like a second mother to him. She showed him Langa’s dumb baby pictures or his awards from snowboarding competitions. They swapped stories and Reki managed to teach her basic skateboarding.</p><p>Cherry convinced Reki that some sort of therapy was a smart idea, so Reki went. It helped him feel a little better.</p><p>As the next year went on, Reki became a sort of celebrity at S himself. Joe and Cherry had taken over, keeping the race open, however this time they got it registered as an actual skate track and didn’t keep the same policies as Adam did. Reki set up a mini garage for board building and repair, and quickly almost everyone at S was paying him for boards.</p><p>Reki still skated and managed to accept the fact that he was still great, even if he wasn’t the best.</p><p>He taught kids how to skate and gave people pointers on their technique. He even made the board Miya used at the Olympics.</p><p>Reki missed Langa almost everyday, but as time went on, it got easier. Besides, everytime Reki made a board or went to skate, it felt like Langa was there with him.</p><p>So, five years later, when Miya got bronze in the Olympics with the board Reki had made, he never felt happier.</p><p>“I made it, Langa,” he’d whispered at the sky. “I made it”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you know...last week i swore i'd never write a major character death. just threw that out the window.</p><p>i cried while writing this. i'm sorry i'm in pain too don't hate me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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